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Cedar City

Cedar City sits one mile + 500 ft. above sea (take that, Denver!), where the Markagunt Plateau smashed into the Great Basin.

Lifting a desert so far off the ground makes for great outdoorism all year round: every winter sport from December to April and hiking, biking, camping, glamping, climbing, (rhyming?) etc. from April to... well... April. It's a big little town with hobbies for miles and plenty of lodging options for the steady stream of party people. Brian Head and Eagle Point are Utah's highest ski resorts, just up the road, and Southern Utah University adds that exciting dash of youthful energy and cheap restaurants every town needs. What you need, Cedar City's got it. Read more...

Competing factions* within the Cedar City Tourism Bureau champion two different nicknames for their town:

Some call it "Gateway to the National Parks" because it's one hour from Zion, 90 minutes from Bryce Canyon and 3 hours from Capitol Reef or the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Buy a National Parks Pass and set up base camp in Cedar. Then, when you get tired of those (Ha!), expand your net and explore places like Cedar Breaks National Monument, only 30 minutes away in the heart of the Dixie National Forest.

Others call it "Festival City, USA." Because it has a lot of festivals. For Shakespeare, for livestock, for music, for wild flowers, for classic cars and films. There's a bike race, a summer sports competition, a rodeo, and a Christmas parade of storybook characters. With all this celebratory foot traffic, they should add an annual Main Street Resurfacing Festival. (Too bad you can't pave a road with sheep dung.)

*This is fictional narrative device created by the author. The mood at the Cedar City tourism bureau is peachy friggin' keen, thank you very much, because on a scale of the world's enjoyable professions their job ranks between Donut Taste-Tester and Southern California-Based Selfie Stick Salesman.